Assuring successful change

Michael Anderson – Parcelforce Worldwide

We were delighted that Michael Anderson, Head of Strategic Programmes Worldwide, came to the Pelicam networking event in September as the guest speaker. Michael talked about the challenges that Parcelforce Worldwide has faced over the last ten years - in particular in areas of change management.

Michael explained that through the challenges experienced in their ongoing technology rationalisation programme, and the contribution of Pelicam, they were able to much better understand what was required to deliver change successfully.

“Pelicam was brought in to support a project by helping us make some critical strategic decisions quickly. As a consequence Pelicam was retained to work with the Project Board offering assurance and guidance and to optimise the change management structure.”

Michael explained some of the key recommendations that were implemented successfully:

}Chunking up a list – look at tasks and activities and examine where they sit together naturally and understand dependency, responsibility and accountability. This enables the project controls, management structure and governance to be set and understood.

Islands of Stability – define key stages and decision/check points where the team are able to make safe decisions about spend, resources, suppliers, risk and benefits.

Objectivity –Pelicam was able to challenge and question throughout the project life cycle, to ensure the project teams were continually focused on the aims of the project and objectively measuring capability and progress.

People – Parcelforce Worldwide are now in a position where the right people from across the organisation are involved. They have the right skills, are supportive and engaged.

Michael concluded that over the last year, Parcelforce Worldwide has delivered three very successful strategic projects and one major international programme. Over 100 important changes have been implemented without disrupting the business, and the business is well set to deliver change programmes in the future.